Chapter 163

Chapter 163: Substitution

Evil cultivators were already like rats crossing the street, and now the entire the Vast Cosmos Realm was watching them. They could only pause their previous kidnapping plan and keep lying low.

But the mission handed down from above still had to be completed, so they set their sights on the mortal world. They spent effort searching for mortals with special physiques, then sent them to Lofty Spirit Realm.

Training these people from childhood into furnaces not only guaranteed high loyalty, it also gave them workers who would sell their lives for them. It killed two birds with one stone. It took time, but it wouldn’t alarm the Vast Cosmos Realm, so after weighing the pros and cons, the evil cultivators chose this path.

Of course, all of this happened after Xia Fei Valley was destroyed. By then, Yun Xi and the others had already been teleported to the mortal world and knew nothing about it. Yet by sheer accident, they ended up running into it anyway. It could only be said that after Yun Xi’s butterfly wings flapped, new variables appeared again.

Back in the present, Yun Xi’s analysis was acknowledged by Liu Hao Tian and Yu Qing Cheng, so the next step was action.

Yun Xi touched the Fei Xia Butterfly on her hair bun and said, “Fei Xia, it’s your time to shine. Keep watch on those flower queens with special physiques and see where they’re ultimately sent. If you find anything, contact me with a voice transmission right away.”

The Fei Xia Butterfly fluttered its wings once and vanished in front of them to carry out the task.

Xia You couldn’t help saying, “These evil cultivators really have no limits. They can think up any vicious method. They don’t even spare mortals. First it was evil cultivation methods, and now they’re treating mortals as trade goods. It’s disgusting.”

Liu Hao Tian was much calmer. He said, “Evil cultivators also want to pursue the Great Dao. They also want to live as long as heaven and earth. But they don’t want to put in effort. They only want shortcuts. Yet are shortcuts that easy?

“To this day, how many evil cultivators have passed the Thunder Tribulation and ascended? I’ve never heard of any. What I’ve heard of is evil cultivators being struck into ash under tribulation lightning.

“Before, to destroy that place that refined corpses from living people, Fellow Cultivator Wei forced a Golden Core breakthrough. You all saw it. Not only did it draw down the Nine Heavens Profound Thunder, it also drew a three-nine Thunder Tribulation. A Golden Core Thunder Tribulation is usually two-nine—eighteen bolts. Fellow Cultivator Wei took nine extra bolts. That’s the Heavenly Dao’s blatant disgust toward evil cultivators.”

Yun Xi sighed. There were tears in every story. She had also thought it would be over after eighteen bolts of Thunder Tribulation, yet she had endured nine more. Luckily, Dian Dian had sent her spiritual energy, and the Seven-Star Doom Staff had helped her withstand lightning. Most importantly, she had a lightning spiritual root. Otherwise, it would have been a guaranteed death.

That was also why Liu Hao Tian had prepared himself to force a Golden Core breakthrough—so that if Yun Xi failed at tribulation transcending, he could take her place.

Yun Xi patted Dian Dian in her arms. She felt they really were worthy of being master and pet. When Dian Dian advanced to Second Rank, it had also endured eighteen bolts of tribulation lightning. She had thought that was normal. It looked like she still had a lot of knowledge to make up for.

After confirming evil cultivators were in Jin Yun City, the four became much more vigilant. Over the next two days, they didn’t even leave the courtyard, relying entirely on the Fei Xia Butterfly as their eyes to learn the Flower Queen Contest’s progress.

Two days later, the Flower Queen Contest ended smoothly, and twenty flower queens were selected. After the contest ended, they would be sent to the capital.

The four felt the evil cultivators would make their move on the road to the capital. Yu Qing Cheng had also confirmed that all twenty had special physiques, which indirectly proved their earlier guess.

After thinking, Yun Xi said, “If we follow behind the convoy, we might alert the evil cultivators. It’s best if we can mix into their group.”

Liu Hao Tian said, “The convoy is all mortals. Our disguise techniques can fool them, but they won’t fool the evil cultivators hiding in the dark.”

Yun Xi thought for a moment, then said, “Then I’ll disguise myself as one of the selected flower queens. I have a treasure that can hide my face, and I can also pretend to be a mortal.”

Under the other three’s gazes, her aura dropped from early Golden Core back to the level of a mortal, and all the spiritual energy around her was restrained cleanly.

Yu Qing Cheng immediately praised, “Master Wei, what an amazing method! Now we just need to choose someone to replace.”

“Mhm. I already have a target. One flower queen doesn’t want to go to the capital. She seems to know something and resists going to the capital a lot.”

“Then we need to act quickly.”

“Alright.”

That night, Yun Xi and Liu Hao Tian appeared in the room of the flower queen Min Yue and completed the substitution.

Yun Xi put on Min Yue’s clothes, then touched the eyes of her rabbit-ear stud earrings. In the next instant, she became the glamorous Min Yue.

Nothing happened overnight. Early the next morning, Yun Xi was awakened by a little maid. After breakfast, she was sent into a gorgeous carriage. Inside, five selected flower queens were already seated.

They chatted and laughed softly, full of anticipation for the trip ahead. Yun Xi didn’t join them. She sat alone in a corner, because the original Min Yue had been a bit unsociable, so Yun Xi doing this didn’t seem strange.

After the carriage was filled with eight people, three carriages set off and left Jin Yun City.

For three days in a row, the convoy’s trip went smoothly. They traveled in the day, stayed in inns at night, and nothing unusual happened.

On the fourth night, after all the flower queens drank a specially prepared sweet soup, they fainted. Yun Xi knew they were about to act, so she also pretended to faint.

Sure enough, after about the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, the person in charge of the convoy took back a bag of gold, then stuffed them into a black carriage and drove off at full speed.

Yun Xi felt the carriage travel for another day. Using the Fei Xia Butterfly’s eyes, she saw that the carriage was heading toward the border between the Cultivation World and the mortal world. In other words, they were transporting these people back into the Cultivation World.

Dian Dian lay motionless in Yun Xi’s arms. It had already confirmed with its nose that the people taking over the group were evil cultivators. That foul smell was impossible to ignore.

After confirming it was an evil cultivator’s work, Yun Xi ordered the Fei Xia Butterfly to notify Liu Hao Tian and the other two. She told them to cross the border first and set up an ambush in advance, to see who was receiving the evil cultivators on the Cultivation World side. If the receivers were also evil cultivators, they could act depending on the situation. If the receivers were not evil cultivators, then their recording jade would be useful.

After receiving Yun Xi’s message, Liu Hao Tian and the other two bypassed the evil cultivators’ carriage and hurried to the border between the Cultivation World and the mortal world first.

The junction of the two worlds was called Cloud Mist Mountain. As the name suggested, the mountain was shrouded in clouds and mist all year round. People who entered the mountain would be covered by the fog and eventually return to where they started, but there were also those who entered Cloud Mist Mountain and vanished completely.

There were many legends about this place, but only cultivators knew the truth. A great cultivation expert had set up a barrier here to prevent cultivators from barging into the mortal world.

With spiritual energy covering their bodies, Liu Hao Tian and the other two passed through the barrier easily. The moment they crossed it, all three felt refreshed. Being bathed in spiritual energy felt truly comfortable.

Xia You asked, “Fellow cultivators, should we find some help?”

Liu Hao Tian frowned. “First we need to confirm who’s receiving those flower queens on the Cultivation World side and whether we can handle them. If we can’t, then we have to keep tracking, and we can’t alert them.

“Also, Fellow Cultivator Wei is still inside the carriage. Her cultivation is high, but she has little experience. I’m worried that if something unexpected happens, she won’t be able to handle it.”